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Sauce

German Sauce

A sweet sauce made with egg yolks, powdered sugar, cream, and optional flavoring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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German Sauce

Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

German Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Beat the egg yolks and powdered sugar together.

  2. Add the cream to the yolk mixture.

  3. Place the mixture in a double boiler and stir until it begins to thicken.

  4. Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth and then add them to the mixture.

  5. Mix thoroughly and serve.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce as they heat and give it a rich, custard-like body.
Egg whites
Beaten to a stiff froth, they lighten the sauce and add airy volume.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the sauce and dissolves easily into the yolks.
Cream
Adds fat and moisture, giving a smooth, rich texture.

The step that matters

Thickening over the double boiler. Egg yolks set at around 160°F and scramble if overheated. Gentle, constant stirring over simmering water thickens the custard evenly without curdling.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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